Articles

The Dangerous Allure of Counter-Offers

A recent article highlighted several years ago talked about how executives of Fortune 1000 companies are basically in agreement that the "good old days" of rewarding employees for 35 years of loyal service are a thing of the past. Years ago, individuals who had experience at several companies were considered "job-hoppers". Potential employers wondered what was wrong with them and why they couldn’t hold a job. Today, changing jobs has become a necessity if individuals expect to advance their careers, especially when there are so many attractive opportunities in the marketplace. The very traits that made them unstable are now hallmarks of a well-rounded, ambitious and assertive professional.

Change and its associated risks are never easy. To quit or not to quit is often a gut-wrenching decision – requiring careful consideration and soul-searching. It involves one of those passages in life that requires abandoning the comfort of the old and assuming the risk of the new. Should you uproot your family; leave behind your friends, your status and the company that helped you progress professionally? As a professional, your career decisions must be made objectively, not emotionally; which is easier said than done.

"When one door closes, another opens: but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us."

- Alexander Graham Bell

Once the often-agonizing decision to leave has been made, you must plan your resignation and how you will handle your employer’s response. It is important to end your relationship as professionally and as simply as possible and not to burn your bridges; you never know when you may need a future reference. Compose a brief letter stating your last day of employment (“the two week notice”) as well as expressing your appreciation of your current supervisor and that your decision is irrevocable. Keep it short, simple and positive.

Do not recite a list of grievances. Before you present your resignation letter, you must be committed to leaving. Otherwise, temporary promises and solutions in the form of a counter-offer may entice you to stay. A "project” that has to be completed forces one to have guilt about leaving their beloved company.

Surprisingly, the very best companies rarely make counter-offers. They believe they treat their employees fairly and wish them well if a better opportunity exists elsewhere. If you work for one of them, do not be disappointed if you fail to receive a counter-offer. Never take it personal. You may ask to stay the full two weeks to finish a project or two or be “whisked out the door.” Again, nothing personal and don’t take as such. Complete whatever you need to complete and leave.

On the other hand, most employers do not like to be “fired”. Your departure may jeopardize an important project or vacation schedule, create additional workload and even negatively impact employee morale.

In order to prevent you from leaving and causing turmoil within the organization, your employer may make you a counter-offer. Appealing to greed or ego, companies will offer resigning employees promotions, additional training, more money or simply promises of future consideration.

They may also prey upon the employee’s conflicting emotions by creating guilt about the present ("How can you leave us at a time like this?") or uncertainty about the future of the new company you are joining, if they even know. Don’t volunteer. Keep it confidential if you can until asked ("We hear the Justice Department is investigating them").

Some common tactics include:

• "We haven’t given you the recognition you deserve; please give us another chance."

• "You’re too valuable for us to lose."

• "We were just about to promote you (or give you a raise), but we had to keep it confidential until now."

• "The grass isn’t always greener, you know. Why take the chance?"

Counter-offers can be very flattering. Before you fall victim to accepting one, here are a few things to think about:

• Why did you have to resign before they offered to give you what you are worth?

• Where is the additional money coming from? Is it simply your next raise a few months early?

• Is your employer buying time until a replacement can be found?

• When the next opportunity for promotion comes along, will the company consider you as loyal as your competitors for the position?

• Once the word gets out, can your relationship with your co-workers ever be the same?

• When an economic slow-down occurs, will you be the first to go?

• Have the same circumstances that caused you to consider a change disappeared?

In fact, statistics prove that nearly four out of five people who accept counter-offers are gone within the first year – and on their employer’s terms and timing.

Although your employer may truly consider you to be an asset and genuinely care about you, your interests are secondary to your boss’ career and your company’s profit. Counteroffers are attempts to manipulate you to do something that is in your employer’s best interests, not necessarily yours. You should hold a steady course from the beginning and stick with your decision to move on to a bigger and brighter future.

IT'S YOUR INTERVIEW, TOO; ASK THE RIGHT QUESTIONS

With unemployment at a 30-year low, it might seem that you don't need to worry much about the impression you make during a job interview. Christie Hardwick Vianson knows differently.

Vianson, director of staffing and community relations for Silicon Graphics Inc. of Mountain View, Calif., recalls one promising candidate who spent the first 20 minutes of an interview asking the manager about the details of the relocation package. Although SGI really needed someone with this person's skills, the manager chose not to make an offer.

"This person did not have any passion for the work we are doing, and that just didn't engender any interest," Vianson said. "We didn't think we were ever going to be able to meet this person's needs".

The moral of this story is to remember that job interview serve two purposes: You must find out whether the job meets your requirements, and you must impress the interviewer enough to get an offer. This means you must ask about the company's work hours, compensation and atmosphere, without sounding lazy, mercenary or self-centered.

There is a way to get the information you want without jeopardizing your chances. Consider this the first stage of negotiations with your potential employer:

Determine your priorities for your next job. Think about everything you want from a job, including salary, benefits, flexibility, stock options, telecommuting and opportunity for growth. Then decide what is most important to you. When and whether you bring up a concern such as flexible work hours or telecommuting will depend on where it ranks on your list. If a particular issue isn't crucial and you think asking about it might raise questions in the interviewer's mind, put off discussing it until after you've been hired.

Research them ahead of time. Reading up on a company can tell you whether it is on solid financial footing and help you impress an interviewer with your knowledge and interest. Less formal research into the company's culture is valuable: It can help you decide what questions to ask about the atmosphere you'll be working in. The easiest way to gather this information is to talk with a friend or acquaintance who works for the company. But even if you don't know anyone, it's still possible to get a sense of the corporate culture. "Hang out at a restaurant close to the company to get a sense of the people, what they're like, and what the conversation is like," said Connie Brock, an employment development aide at the NOVA Private Industry Council in Sunnyvale, Calif.

Keep the conversation focused on what you can do for the company. If you're asking whether you can telecommute, explain that you have found that you're more productive when you work from home one or two days a week, Marianne Adoradio, owner of Career Consulting in Santa Clara, Calif., suggests. If the issue is your schedule, make it clear from your question that you're willing to work hard.

Use both open-ended and direct questions. If you're wondering about the company's culture, the best approach might be an indirect one. For example, if you want to know whether the company's managers are open to employees ideas, ask several people what they like about working for the company. If none of them mentions the management style, ask more targeted questions, such as, "How would you describe the company's approach to management?"

Keep asking questions until you have all the information you need. When you ask about one of your high-priority concerns, don't let the matter drop after the manager's initial response. For example, say that you ask whether you can telecommute, but you're told, "We don't usually telecommute." Follow up by asking whether anyone has ever tried it, and if so, how it worked out. "Keep asking clarifying questions," Aldoradio said. "Then the (interviewer) feels I'm interested and that they're understood. It will be easier to see how to come back and ask for it again."

Pay attention when your interviewer responds to questions. To gauge when to bring up a potentially sensitive topic, sense how the interview is going. This means both listening to and watching your interviewer. Watch body language, too. If your questions seem to be making the interviewer uncomfortable, it's probably not the time to begin a sensitive conversation. "You can see if you bring up a (sensitive) subject if the person immediately crosses their arms, looks away, rolls their eyes or looks uncomfortable," Brock said.

Make sure you talk to potential peers as well as superiors. If your interview schedule doesn't include some of the people you would be working with, ask if you can talk to some peers. Prepare a set of questions that will flesh out your concerns. For example, Phillips said you might ask: "What are the really great things about working here? Why did you come here? What kind of workday is typical? What is this manager's style like?" Often peers don't know what to ask you, so if you're asking them about themselves, two things happen: First, you get the information, and second, their impression of you is that you were really interested."

Time questions carefully. The hardest part of getting answers to sensitive questions is knowing when to ask them. Many questions -- such as whether the company will pay for your move -- are appropriate at some times during the interview process but can torpedo a job hunt if you ask them too soon. When is the right time? It depends on how complicated a request you're making, how important the issue is to you, and how committed you think the company is to hiring you. If an issue is critical for you -- for example, you must pick up your children every day at a certain time -- don't bring it up until you are sure the company is interested in you.

Don't be afraid to improvise. In the end, you must rely on your own judgment about what and when to ask your interviewers. When Lisa North changed jobs a few years ago, she chose to lay the groundwork for one of her less crucial requests during the interviews, then make a formal request after she had an offer. North, who is currently a consultant in interactive branding with Landor Associates in San Francisco, was living in Oakland and was considering a job in Santa Clara. During the interviews, when she was asked how she felt about the commute, she mentioned that she planned to move south. When she got the job offer, she thanked the manager and said she was excited about the job. Then she asked what sort of relocation package the company offered. A few hours later, the manager called back and said the company would pay all the expenses of her 45-mile move. North said the key to asking for extras is to be relatively certain you'll take the job if the company obliges you.

(by Bark Clothier, The Charlotte Observer, Monday, March 20, 2000)

MAGAZINE RATES BEST SITES FOR BUYING OR SELLING HOMES

Few things are as frustrating as buying something big and finding out later that you could have had it for less. Any maybe nowhere does buyer's remorse hit harder than when you buy a home. Realtors charge fees that can be negotiated. Mortgage company costs can be flexible, and the price of a home can vary, depending on location and time.

The Internet can be a good source of information for all those things. The February issue of Yahoo Internet Life issues report cards on the slew of real estate-related Web sites.

The critique starts with a thorough look at some of the sites that aspire to portaldom, grading them for the quality and quantity of listings, the site's tools, the research capabilities and the extras.

Realtor.com rated highest, receiving an overall B+ ranking. It was praised for having "the mother lode" of listings, with 1.3 million homes in the database. Features such as saved search criteria and virtual tours gave it a B for tools. Extras such as articles, message boards and e-mails when a new listing matches your search criteria earned Realtor.com a B+.

The Microsoft Network's Home Advisor, homeadvisor.com, received a B rating. The site was noted for its research features, which include guides, tips and FAQs that cover each aspect of the home-buying process. The site was criticized because of its spotty neighborhood information.

Homes.com was average. The site had more than 700,000 listings, but the coverage was spotty: Manhattan had 1,400 listings, San Francisco 49. The research tools won't let users save listings of favorite homes, but the site sends users e-mail of new listings.

Homeseekers.com and Cyberhomes.com graded poorly. j Homeseekers has an uneven distribution of 680,000 homes listings. The neighborhood information, however, is limited and the site offers no FAQs, guides or tutorials, often crucial for first-time users. Cyberhomes' coverage was weak. There were no listings for Cleveland; Austin, Texas; or San Jose, Calif.

For people trying to sell their home, owners.com ranked highest. The site lets sellers list their homes themselves, replacing the Realtor and saving a fee that could amount to 6 percent or more. The listing is free, and users can post a photograph of their house. A link to homepricecheck.com gives users an idea of what prices other homes in the area are fetching. The basic listing appears for three months. A "premium" placement costs somewhere between $89 and $139.

Moving.com was rated the best site for people looking to move. The site includes a database of licensed movers, including local, long-distance or international outfits. The site includes a link to the U.S. Postal Service's change-of-address forms.

One site taps into some of the national interest in home restoration. Improvenet.com rated tops among home-building and remodeling sites. Users can fill out a form detailing their project, whether a repair or a home construction, and local contractors, designers and architects can bid on the work.

The best home-financing site was eloan.com, according to the magazine. The site asks a few questions, then suggests the type of loan best-suited for the user's needs -- fixed-rate, adjustable rate or a mix. The site searches more than 70 lenders, including Chase, the Money Store and Fleet.

The article also included these rankings:

The best site for virtual home tours, homeseekers.com.

Homefair.com offered the best information about neighborhoods, including unemployment rates, household incomes, climate information and student-teacher ratios.

The best-rated place to find a real estate agent, should you decide to go that route, is homegain.com. Users can submit a profile describing what they want to buy or sell, and homegain.com sends the information to local agents. Interested agents then send proposals back to the site, along with their credentials, sales history and commission rate.

(by Mark Clothier, The Charlotte Observer, Monday, March 20, 2000)